Parents Furious About BB Gun-Wielding Child At School
CHICAGO (CBS) -- An angry mother is demanding answers, after her young son told her he was threatened with a BB gun at a Chicago Public elementary school on the city's Far South Side.
As CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli reports, the boy was one of three children who found themselves at the point of the weapon at school.
Police were out on Monday at the Ralph Metcalfe Elementary Community Academy, at 12339 S. Normal Ave. in the West Pullman neighborhood. Officers were back out on Tuesday again to take a supplemental police report, after they say the young victim changed his story.
Police say the fifth-grade boy did not initially claim the BB gun was pointed at him, but he later told his mother that the weapon was indeed pointed at him. This prompted officers to take the additional report.
It is not clear if the BB gun was loaded.
The 13-year-old boy who brought the weapon to school has been suspended.
"A gun was pointed at him. He didn't know if it was a BB gun or a real gun," said the boy's mother, Jillian McDaniels. "So the frisked the kids, and it was a BB gun. My son called me and told me the incident. I went to the police station."
Another mother, Danielle Powell, said her daughter also had the BB gun pointed at her.
"My child informed me that a child pointed a weapon in her face. The principal ignored it. No one – anyone – from CPS contacted me concerning this matter," Powell said.
While the boy who pointed the BB gun has only been suspended so far, he could face additional charges.
Meanwhile, parents of the three young victims all came to the school Tuesday. McDaniels and Powell are most angry about the fact that they were not informed about the incident by school officials.
A spokeswoman for the Chicago Public Schools issued a statement in response.
"School officials took immediate action to notify Chicago police and took other appropriate steps to address the situation," she said.
